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Tag Archives: .xsl

People say, if you stop learning, you start dying. I disagree. The exact opposite could be true. If you are constantly learning you may not have time to act. Case in point. I have spent the past few days “trying” to learn .xsl, .xml, .xslt and put it in an online catalog site. I used a large, very large spreadsheet from a client that had over 4000 records in it. I was able to accomplish getting the spreadsheet from Excel to .xml. I was able to map the data to it. I was able to create the .xsl file and see the data in an html page. What I couldn’t do is sort, filter, group, param, etc the data to be anymore useful than a giant list of 4000 records.

I jumped on dozens and dozens of sites looking for answers or clues on how to correctly do it. So two days later and countless hours of searching, learning, etc. on how to do all this, I have died a little more. The rest of my websites suffered for it. New product development suffered. Marketing new clients suffered. And my moral declined significantly for it.

Yes, learning is important, but so is acting. Acting on what you have already learned and apply it to what you do. Some business models suggest that you should focus on one thing and do that one thing the best you can. That to me is the opposite end of the spectrum. Learning new technologies helps keep you on the cutting edge. Take Responsive Web Design. In the past, developers would create two sites, one for desktops and one for smaller devices, if not more for smaller devices. Now you can develop one responsive site to function on multiple platforms.

Do keep learning but don’t let it consume all your time preventing you from applying what you already know.

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About Me

I am a business owner and have been in business for myself since 1999. A few years back, I decided that I wanted to learn about web design and graphic design. I am self-taught by searching the internet for different ways to do things.

This blog is about what I have learned over the years and complied into one source. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

I am available for hire, you can find my web and graphic design page here: My Web Design Site